


A Very Stark Christmas

by yggrites



Series: It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year [4]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas, Fluff, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-02-25 20:41:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21861613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yggrites/pseuds/yggrites
Summary: Would it even be Christmas if half of the family wasn't keeping secrets from the other half?A sequel to Five Days of the Starks.
Relationships: Arya Stark/Gendry Waters, Jon Snow/Ygritte, Robb Stark/Jeyne Westerling, Sansa Stark/Margaery Tyrell
Series: It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/897771
Comments: 9
Kudos: 98





	1. 23rd

**Author's Note:**

> Happy holidays, everyone! This is the follow up story of Five Days with the Starks (let's pretend I didn't go absolutely missing for two years), but hopefully it can also be read as a stand-alone story. I am also aware of the fact that with the ages that I established before (again, that's very much on for me being lazy), it doesn't make a lot of sense for Jon and Gendry to be in University but please just go with it. It's set two years after the first story. Fair warning, this 100% as far fetched and ridiculous as the last one, I genuinely hope you enjoy!

It was one of those rare years where there was no prediction of a snow storm for Christmas. Even though it had been snowing constantly the day before, it was now a cold, sunny morning and, although Arya was disappointed, Jon loved it. He just wish he wasn't aware of that at the moment, because that meant being awake far too early for the holidays.

"Why are you doing this to me?" he whined as he covered his face with his pillow, since Arya had opened up his blinds and was now sitting at the foot of his bed in an obnoxious red sweater with what he assumed was a reindeer on it, jumping up and down to keep him from falling asleep.

"Please!"

"This is why dad wanted you to get your driver's licence sooner..." That got her to stop for a second. It was a very short second.

"Shut up, I'm working on it!"

"For two years now." Jon mumbled, turning on his side.

"Hey, no! That is not the point of this conversation! Will you please come with me?" Arya was shaking him now.

Jon peeked from under his pillow to look at the time. "For the love of every god out there, Arya. It's 7 A.M.."

"Jeyne asked me to look after Gawen later this afternoon."

"And you couldn't ask dad to go with you?"

"I did, mum needs him."

"Stop having an answer to all my questions." He half-heartedly tried kicking her off the bed. It didn't work.

"Please, I need to find Gendry a nice gift."

"Why did you wait until the last possible day then?"

"I didn't, I just couldn't find anything I liked!"

"I refuse to believe it's that hard to find him an ugly Christmas sweater." Jon complained, causing Arya to slap the leg that was closest to her.

"It's not an ugly-Christmas-sweater thing, it's more of a dramatic-Christmas-sweater thing!"

"You're the only two people in this house who think that." Jon tried kicking one of the pillows at the end of the bed at her. It harmlessly bounced off her elbow as Arya rolled her eyes.

"Whatever, I just need to find one better than the one he's giving me." The first year they had spent Christmas together, Arya and Gendry had accidentally started a competion over who could wear the most ridiculous Christmas themed sweaters, which had resulted in them giving each other the most dramatic ones they could find the next year. "Last year he outdid me by far, I'm not letting that happen twice."

"Oh, so it's not even a whatever-Christmas-sweater thing, it's just your weird competitiveness I'll never fully understand."

"That was over a year ago, Jon. Let it go."

"I will not. You nearly blew off my bedroom door."

At the silence that followed, Jon removed the pillow from over his head to look at her, she would never let him have the last word over this particular argument. Arya was doing her best puppy eyes at him - they weren't good, but still.

"Fine. But only if you promise not to hurt yourself this year, we don't have the time for that." he grumbled, ducking under his blanket just in thime before Arya jumped on him, nearly screaming her "Thank you"'s in his ear and choosing to ignore that last part. 

"Meet me donwstairs in 5!" She yelled nearly out the door, only having time to hear a muffled "Don't push it."

Except for her parents bickering in the study - not so much as bickering, more like Catelyn listing all the things that still had to be done and Ned politely asking if it was all that necessary after every item of the list -, there was no other sound coming from anywhere in the house and no one else seemed to be up.

Or so Arya thought, walking into the kitchen to see Sansa brushing Margaery's hair behind her ear.

"Morning." she announced herself, spreading some butter over an abandoned piece of toast and making Sansa jump away from Margaery. "You know I know you're dating right? Have known for a while now, actually."

"Funny." Sansa deadpanned. 

" _We_ are on errand-running duty, why are you up?" Margaery asked, sitting down in front of Arya.

"I still have to buy Gendry's gift." During the course of those two sentences, Sansa a had managed to sit down next to Margaery, fidget a little with the table cloth and get up before Arya had finished her sentence, her face going red. Arya chose to ignore it.

"That's actually sweet. I remember when we - "

"That's not he point of it." Arya interrupted. "I have to find the most extra Christmas sweater I can and nothing I've seen so far screams "Santa's little helper threw up on this"."

Margaery took a sip of her coffee. "I'm not going to pretend I understand, but I respect that." 

In the background, Sansa was busy rearranging the mug cabinet.

"Sansa, are you okay?" Arya asked.

She stopped, slowly setting down the mug she was holding before turning to stare straight at Margaery. "I can't do this anymore."

Well that wasn't alarming.

"Sansa..." For all her worth, Margaery was trying to hold back a smile.

"I can't handle another week!" Sansa was practically ripping her hair out now."

"You don't have to! We can - "

But she wasn't letting Margaery finish.

"I'm going to tell her!"

"Should I go get Robb?" By now Arya looked very much like she didn't want to be there. "This feels like a Robb thing."

"We're getting married!" Sansa blurted out before she could do anything. Margaery only shook her head, but she was smilling. "Oh, that's better." Sansa said, sitting down next to her fiancée and grabbing her hand. "Sorry." Then she turned to Arya. "We were waiting for all the stress of Christmas to die down so we could tell everyone."

"I think you broke your sister." Margaery pointed at Arya, her toast halfway to her mouth. She seemed to only notice it then and put it down.

"That's amazing!" She smiled at the two of them. "I can't - "

"You're already up? Great, I need you to do something." Catelyn walked into the kitchen, notebook in hand, only looking up to see that Arya was there. Sansa, again, jumped away from Margaery as if they were 15. 

Arya only had time to think about how hilarious Christmas dinner would be, given how unable Sansa was of keeping a secret, before grabbing the rest of her toast and heading out.

"Sorry, I still have Gendry's gift to buy!" She explained, shoving the rest of the toast in her mouth before her mother had time to reply and met Jon at the end of the stairs, thowing him his winter coat.

"Perfect, let's go."

\- 

After at least three hours of scanning every store at the mall and wrestling the last sweater in Gendry's size that Arya _had_ to buy out of some guy's hands, she convinced a very grumpy Jon to stop for lunch at her favourite piza place.

Back home, Margaery and Sansa were still gone - Arya imagined her sister would want to spend as much time away from the family as possible before she would burst - and Jon was swept away by their father just as Arya was assigned to Gawen duty. Jeyne was trying to make up for spending Gawen's first Christmas with her parents the year before by helping Catelyn as much as humanly possible, and, if Arya was being honest, she would gladly take an afternoon with him over being bossed around by her mother.

As everyone busied themselves around the house, her job consisted of holding Gawen in the living room without him crying for either Robb or Jeyne every 30 minutes, while also waiting for Gendry to arrive since his tutor had kept him on campus a few days longer.

Since Gawen was now almost two and begining to talk, as well as as obsessed with farm animals as any child could be, the afternoon was easily spent going back and forth between his favourite animals and what sound they made. Wanting to surprise Arya, Gendry had sent Jon a text to let him into the house, but when Jon walked him to the living room, he couldn't really bring himself to break off the scene in front of him even though they hadn't seen each other in a week.

"Okay, so imagine this," Arya was sitting on the floor, her back to them, while Gawen sat open legged in front of her, holding a little toy cow. "daddy's home, watching football. What do you say to him?"

Gawen held up his toy. "Cow."

"I know that's a cow, but what did auntie Arya told to say? "Football is"...?"

"Cow says "moo"."

She dropped her head in defeat.

"Don't smile like that when you're looking at my sister with a child." Jon's voice behind him made Gendry roll his eyes automatically, trying to hide the stupid grin he knew was spreading across his face. "I don't need to be worrying about that for the next ten years of my life. At least."

Gendry elbowed him playfully. "Don't worry, I'm leaving that for you and Ygritte." He immediatly regretted his words when he saw Jon look slightly green. "You'll be fine, like she would say no to you. You two are practically a married couple already." Jon only shrugged while Gendry stole a quick look at Arya who was helping Gawen stuff all his animals into a boat, leaving him to wonder if it wasn't a little early for biblical reconstitutions. "Have you told her yet?"

Jon still had a little green to him. "I was thinking about maybe just telling the family all at once? Then they can all be as judgemental about my life choices as they wish together."

Gendry rolled his eyes again - usually their conversations on the subject involved a lot of eye-rolling - "Is it still worth pointing out how dramatic you're being about all of this? They're your family, they'll be happy for you." He could not contain his laughter at Jon's deeply offended look, which caused Arya to turn to look at them. "Just tell her." He whispered to Jon.

"Hey, you're here!" Jon saw Arya take Gawen's hand and walk him to them, offering Gendry a smile Jon had learnt to recognize as being only for him - at the same time, he was also forced to recognize he might be getting a little too invested in his little sister's relationship. As Gawen hugged Gendry's legs, trying to get him to paying attention to his farm animals, Arya gave him a quick kiss.

"Tell who what?"

"What?"

"What you and Gendry were talking about. Tell who what?" She repeated.

Jon glanced around, blinking and cursing Arya's absurdly good hearing. "Just something I have to talk to Catelyn about." He started walking backwards out of the living room. "It's nothing." He bumped into the door. "Actually, maybe I should do it now." And with that he was gone.

Arya made her way to Gendry, because even if Jon was usually weird, this was too much even for him. Gendry was sitting on the floor, surrounded by Gawen's toys. "How was the drive here?"

"Fine. Could have done without the snow, but what can you do?"

Arya shook her head, not bothering to argue about the weather since she knew it would be pointless. Then she sat down and stared at him for a while, eyebrows raised.

"What?" he eventually asked.

"What were you and Jon actually talking about?"

Of course. Gendry almost dared to hope that this wouldn't fall on him, but he knew Arya too well and he knew she wouldn't drop it. He considered making an excuse for Jon but Arya probably wouldn't get close to believing him, so he opted for the truth. "Sorry, but I honestly can't tell you."

That, however, was not the answer she was looking for. Arya just kept staring at him.

"Look," he told her. "You know I would tell you if I could. But this is Jon's thing and it's important for him, he's the one who has to tell you."

"Oh, don't act all noble on me. I can just act surprised when he does decide to tell me about it."

"I really can't, I'm sorry."

"Gendry, don't you dare -"

At this point, Gawen had been tugging at Gendry's hand and pointing at the kitchen for a while, when Gendry stood up. "Sorry, Arya. But I'm clearly needed elsewhere." When she rolled her eyes he added before following Gawen. "It'll be worth the wait, I promise." 

She ignored that and yelled after him. "He only wants to go with you because he thinks you'll give him candy and he knows I'm the responsible one here!"

He picked Gawen up and winked at an annoyed Arya before leaving the room.


	2. 24th

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys enjoyed yesterday's chapter! Just wanted to let you know that these first two are more about setting the ground for the story and tomorrow it'll start to pick up the pace, so please stick around! Anyways, I hope these two are still enjoyable. Merry Christmas Eve!

Christmas Eve's morning in the Stark household meant, as tradition goes, that everyone got to be woken up by Rickon banging on every door and stomping down the stairs to get the first serving of whatever breakfast Catelyn and Ned had prepared that year. 

"When will you stop?" Sansa stood behind Rickon's chair, shaking him as vigorously as someone who had just been woken up could - not that vigorously - before sitting down next to him. "Pass the tea, please."

"You say that every year," Arya was angrily spreading some jam on her toast. "it's not happening, just make peace with it."

"Someone has to bring the Christmas spirit into this house!" Rickon countered way too cheerfully.

"See, you say that," Robb cut in. "but it can't possible be about anything else other than anyoing as many people at once as possible."

Rickon held a hand over his heart, prettending to be hurt. "Do you have that little faith in me? The Christmas spirit is -"

"Oh, please." Sansa interrupted.

"That's what Gawen's for." Ned argued, which prompted equal parts laughter and indignation across the table.

"Ned, that's your grandson."

"Yeah, can we not talk that way about my child, the child I brought into this world?"

"You din't bring him into this world, I did."

"Dad has a point, though. Isn't that why you bought Gawen that little elf costume?"

Now, _that_ was followed by a 30 minute argument about whether or not Robb and Jeyne should let him believe in Santa, while Gawen was just excited at the mention of elves. That only ended when Catelyn saw fit to distribute the tasks for the day.

So, while Bran secured the much coveted Gawen duty for the day, Catelyn, Jeyne and Robb kicked everyone out of the kitchen, Sansa was on decorations and the boys on silverware and table placements. Arya was shipped off along with Margaery on errand running duties - since the mistletoe incidents, she had been unanimously kicked out of the house for the day.

"Please tell me how long Sansa lasted until she cracked and told one of us?"

They were now at the bakery, waiting to pick up the cakes Catelyn had ordered after having already picked up Ned's suit from the dry cleaners and bought more drinks. Arya took the opportunity to get more information from Margaery.

"About what?"

"Oh, you know, about how we're getting a sunny Christmas this year." Arya slapped her arm. "About your freaking engagement, maybe?"

"Alright! You could have just lead with that." Margaery brushed her arm. "She lasted longer than I thought, actually. You were the first one she told." Then she laughed. "Although I had to tell Bran before that. He came to talk to me because she was being so weird and he was genuinely concerned."

Arya laughed as well. "The perks of a big family is that you still have plenty of people to tell. So, who asked who?"

"Sansa asked." At the look on Arya's face, she added. "I know, I was equally surprised."

"I'm not going to lie, I thought it would be you."

"Me too, but she beat me to it."

"Huh." Aya cocked her head to the side, taking a few steps forward as the line advanced. "And when did she do it?" When Margaery didn't follow, she looked back to see her standing there with her hands on her hips, narrowed eyes following her

"A few weeks ago. You know, I think you've asked me more questions today than... well, ever."

Arya rolled her eyes. "That's dramatic."

"Kind of. But still."

"Well, you _are_ marrying my sister."

Margaery kept studying her face. "True, but I don't think that's it." Then she smiled the type of smile Arya didn't like to see on her face. She only smiled like that when she knew something. "I think you have some news of your own." Then she gasped. "Maybe about you and Gendry?"

Margaery gave Arya a little nudge, but she just kept studying the pastries on the display window. "Not really." Thankfully, she was saved by their number being called out.

"I know that's not true." Margaery told her. "But I'm in a good mood today so I'm not going to push it."

They took the cakes and went on carefully avoiding asking the other one for any details about anything remotely personal, which meant a full day of trying to figure who was getting what gifts that night. Once they were allowed back in the house - meaning after all the stores had closed and it was just mean to keep them out - Bran was already on the piano and the wine was steadily on his way to the fourth bottle.

Careful to avoid the sounds of her mother's despair somewhere near the study, Arya made her way to the kitchen for a glass of wine while trying to decide who she would annoy with her lack of tasks for now. 

Over the stove were Robb and Jeyne, being all cheesy while they watched the boiling potatoes - nothing new there. The second she saw Arya, Jeyne grabbed the wine glass Robb was holding, waving her over.

"Arya!" Robb borderline yelled from Jeyne's side, pulling her in for a hug. 

Jeyne recovered her from Robb's grasp. "Come here, I know just what you need." She handed Arya the wine glass before turning back to Robb. "Go see if Bran needs any help, will you?" He gave her one of his dumb smiles and a thumbs up before blowing them each a kiss and heading for the living room. Arya assumed one of the already empty wine bottles had been Robb's.

She was trying to steal a warm cookie from the tray when Jeyne grabbed her by the shoulders and she dropped it instinctively, holding her hands up.

"It was just one!"

"What?" Jeyne looked at the tray and shook her head. "Oh, that's fine. I need your help."

Again, not alarming. 

Jeyne let her go but kept staring at her. "I have to tell you something but you can't tell anyone. Specially Robb." When she didn't get an answer, she waved her wooden spoon at Arya. "Promise."

Arya took a step back. She liked Jeyne, but she had only recently found out she could be a little intimidating. "Alright."

Jeyne finally put the spoon down.

"We have something to tell you all, but we decided to wait until after the holidays, you know how your mother gets stressed." Arya smiled sympathetically. "But Robb has been taking all my drinks this evening and now he won't listen to me and if he keeps drinking he'll probably be well and gone before dinner is ready."

Arya just looked confused. "Are you trying to tell me Robb has a drinking problem?"

Jeyne rolled her eyes. "I'm pregnant, Arya. Robb as just been taking all the wine glasses your mother has been poured me today."

"That's amazing!" Arya couldn't really contain her excitement at the thought of another little Gawen running around the house. "About the pregnancy, not Robb's drinking."

"Yeah, thanks. Can you help me? I don't want him blurting it out during dinner."

"Don't worry, when I started going to bars with him and Jon I learnt pretty quickly to swipe their drinks for myself. But tell me more! How long have -"

"Good, you're here." They were interrupted by Rickon, who instantly made a beeline for the cookies before turning to Jeyne. " You should go check on your husband, he's just sitting next to Bran on the piano and he looks like he's about to cry. And no one needs that."

She shook her head and squeezed Arya's hand in thanks before going after Robb.

Leaving Rickon on potato watch, she took the opportunity to sneak off and check on Gendry, who was busy putting all the empty silverware boxes back in place. Arya snuck up behind him and wrapped her arms around his stomach, smilling when she felt him jump and steal her wine glass as revenge to take a sip.

"Hey." Arya gave him a kiss on the cheek after disentangling herself from around him. Gendry smiled when he saw her bright blue sweater with a weird, miscellaneous pattern of reindeer and pine trees and snowflakes all over it. "How were things around the house?"

He shrugged. "It was fine."

"So... terrible." Arya teased.

"No!" It's just that your mother can be a little... uptight?"

Arya laughed but she still appreciated the effort. "At least you had Jon."

Gendry went back to stacking boxes. "He's also been stressing out all day, so not really good company. But I had fun with Rickon."

"Now you're just teasing me." Arya complain, and when he laughed she grabbed a box from his hands to get his attention. "Just tell me what's going on with Jon!"

Gendry smiled at her pouting face, not resisting giving her a quick kiss before retrieving the box from her. "I can't, Arya. I'm really sorry."

She crossed her arms and leaned against the wall, trying to bargain with him while also seeming unaffected. "Fine, then I won't tell you the bomb Jeyne dropped on me."

"About the pregnancy?"

Arya stood up straight. "How did you know about _that_?"

He shrugged. "Robb is completely lovestruck and Jeyne hasn't touched a single drink since I got here. It was fairly easy to guess."

"Maybe she just didn't feel like drinking!"

"Arya, it's Christmas with your family."

She grabbed another box from his hands before he could turn back to the closet. "Then I guess you don't get to know about what Sansa told me either."

Gendry rested his hands on his hips and smiled apologetically. "Margaery texted me about the engagement." 

"Oh, come on! And you managed to keep it from me?"

He patiently retrieved the box she was holding. "Hey, we come from the outside, we have to stick together! Were you really going to tell me what Sansa and Jeyne told you?"

"Of course not, but that's not the point. Just tell me about Jon!" Arya was aware she was throwing a mild temper tantrum now.

Before Gendry could answer, they heard loud footsteps from the corridor and coughing - since the number of couples in the family had started growing, Bran had started doing that so as to not catch anyone off-guard again - and turned to see him peeking into the storage room.

"Dinner's ready." He took off but went back to add. "Also, mum has an... announcement?"

That was enough to peak their interest.

Arya helped Gendry put away the remaining boxes, bickering the whole time, before they made their way to the dinning room to take their seats.

Catelyn took this time to - in an unnecessarily dramatic way - stand up and request everyone's attention.

"It has been brought to my attention that I might have been behaving in an _overbearing_ manner and that I was a little _erratic_ and didn't leave much room for the _joy and communion of Christmas_." She had said all this while applying air-quotes, which prompted Ned to add "I didn't say it in that tone.", but he was stopped by Catelyn's out-stretched hand."

" _That_ being said, I would like to apologize for that and invite you all to share your news from these last few months with us since, _apparently_ , I haven't give you space to do so. So, who would like to start?" And with that she sat down, looking around expectantly.

Now, it might have only been because she was privy to the secrets going around the table, as well as some of her own, but Arya could feel the tension that had taken over the room. Gendry bumped his knee against hers and smiled, nodding his head almost imperceptibly at Jon, who looked, at best, sweaty. She only glared back at him.

Thankfully, Rickon - blissfully unaware, she could only assume - went off about his university's football team and that seemed to be enough for Catelyn, who spent the rest of the night sending smug glances at Ned.

Arya had made sure to sit next to Jeyne so she could easily divert any drinks that were offered to her before Robb got to them, which got him to give up on trying to convince any family member that would listen to him to sing a duet. That being said, she had also made sure to sit in front of Sansa to have full access to her discomfort throughout the meal. Paired with Jon's look of despair that for some reason, maybe solidarity for Sansa, seemed to get even worse when Margaery reffered to every single commitment she made at work as an "engagement". That resulted in Sansa nearly spilling her wine twice and, 20 minutes into dinner, Jon being done with his food already and refusing to even look at his plate. Bran kept sending texts from under the table, fairly convinced he was being discreet, and Gendry was looking around, wondering if this was what he looked like on his first Christmas dinner with the Starks. 

When it came time to exchange gifts, almost everyone seemed more relieved than usual.

After handing out her presents and opening the one her parents had got her, Arya grabbed Gendry's wrapped up sweater and moved to sit on the arm of the couch, next to him. On the floor in front of them sat Bran, and Arya noticed him holding a present with a name tag that read from one of the Reeds before quickly hiding it and looking around to make sure no one had noticed.

Arya tugged at the sleeve of Gendry's sweater. "Did you see whose gift Bran was holding?"

He gestured to the pile of bags and boxes on his lap with one hand while he handed them out with the other. "Not exactly what I was foccusing on."

"Nevermind."

She patiently waited for him to finish distributing presents until there was only one left. Gendry smiled at her and they silently exchanged theirs. Arya waited for him to unwrap his first, convinced she had bought him the perfect sweater, only to be rewarded with a very serious look on his face before his eyes turned to her and he started laughing. "You do yours now." He said before she could ask anything.

Arya gave him a suspicious look before tearing through the wrapping paper in front of her, only to find a bright green woolen sweater, with matching tinsel and different coloured pom-poms and bells just like the one Gendry was holding and she couldn't help laughing as well. 

"You know, it seemed like a good ideia when I wasn't the one who had to wear it." She told him, wipping away tears.

"Funny, I thought the same thing. Who would have thought?" Gendry was holding up the sweater to take a better look at it. "I kind of like it, though? In a weird way, it's not that bad."

"Great." Rickon chimed in from across the couch, "Now you can look ridiculous together." which prompted Arya to ball up the remaining wrapping paper and throw it at him.

"Hey, don't make fun of them!" Robb cut in. He seemed more sensible now that he was sobering up. "Those sweaters are punishment enough." That resulted in Arya balling up Gendry's wrapping paper as well to throw it at Robb.

"Don't use my ammo!" Gendry mock protested, although he did turn to Robb when the wrapping paper Arya had thrown at him made his way back to hit Gendry in the head. "What a great example you're setting for your child."

In the mean time, Arya and Rickon had gotten in a full on wrapping paper ball fight, Margaery had joined in after being hit by a few stray throws and everyone else kept stealing glances at Catelyn, trying to judge whether or not she would cut in. Catelyn, however, was trying to look unbothered and only looked at Ned as if to say "Are you going to do something about it?". It all pointed to "no", as he seemed to be enjoying himself far too much as he pretended to be injured by Gawen throwing little pieces of wrapping paper at him.

The fight did die down on its own - Robb and Gendry got tired after a couple of throws and Arya and Rickon were too lazy to get up and retrieve the wrapping paper that had landed out of reach, eventually running out of wrapping paper balls to throw. And one by one and two by two, they started retreating back to their rooms, leaving Arya and Rickon, still bickering while Jon and Sansa laughed at Margaery and Gendry trying to play the piano and also sing a song they couldn't even remember the lyrics to. 

Once Margaery got bored, she had switched with Arya, who now sat next to a completely bewildered Gendry, trying to teach him to play an easy Christmas song while he was still stuck on the fact that he had absolutely no idea she could even play the piano, prior to that night.

"Did you think Bran was being weird tonight?" Sansa asked, moving her feet to rest on Margaery's lap.

"Define "weird"." Rickon mumbled at the same time as Jon chimed in. "He's been distant all week actually, now that I think about it."

"I mean, I can't have been the only one who saw him texting the whole dinner right?" Margaery asked. Everyone nodded. Except for Gendry, he was distracted.

"I saw him holding a gift from one of the Reeds tonight but he didn't even open it, he just hid it before anyone saw it." Gendry didn't listen to a word Arya had said as he was mesmerized by her fingers moving over the keys. She elbowed him lightly to get his attention back on the conversation.

"What? Oh, yeah."

"I think he's been on the phone with Meera almost every night since we got home." Rickon supplied, which only sparked Margaery's curiosity.

"Didn't he have a crush on her?"

The night went on in a discussion of whether or not Bran was crushing on Meera Reed. Once the fire died out, the sleepily moved from the living room to their shared bedrooms - good old Stark family values meant no sleeping in the same room until marriage and no one was going to argue with Ned Stark about that. Gendry grabbed Arya's hand on their way up the stairs to whisper, "Meet me downstairs in 20?"

She rolled her eyes but couldn't help a smile. "How dramatic."

"It's Christmas. Can't you just give me a break on Christmas?"

Arya couldn't resist giving him a quick kiss. "I could, but where's the fun in that?"

"Can't I just do something nice?"

Arya sighed dramatically but offered him a smile before disappearing into Sansa's room, since Gendry and Jon were in hers.

20 minutes later she was curled up on the couch, watching the red-hot leftover ashes on the fireplace and nearly falling asleep when Gendry sat down next to her, leaving a small box with a bow on her lap.

"What's this?"

A smile was spreading across his face when Gendry gestured for her to open it. Inside, Arya found a key with a little tag on it and an adress. She read it twice before turning to him, her eyes wide. "Wait, is this...?" She was too scared to finish the sentence. Gendry smiled.

"It's the apartment you liked. It's ours." Then he added. "Well, it's rented and we can only move in in June. But it's kind of ours. As ours as it's going to get."

Arya laughed and threw her arms around his neck for a kiss. "Are you serious?"

"I just talked to the landlord yesterday morning. It's official!" He bumped his arm against hers playfully. " If you were about to chicken out on me, you owe me a month's rent."


	3. 25th

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas!! Thanks for sticking around!

All throughout the morning, Stark children were seen lazily exiting their rooms and making a pit-stop in the kitchen to stock up on breakfast before moving to the living room.

It was all well and good until lunch time started rolling around and Catelyn was nowhere to be seen to assign who was to set the table.

As Rickon argued in favour of the possibility of their mother having been abducted by aliens, Jon - who had gone to get the door for Ygritte - called out from the kitchen, "I think you should come here." which resulted in a mob hudled over the sink to look out the window in shock.

"Do you think she's okay?" Sansa asked, looking out the window to see their mother, back turned to them just reading a book.

"Maybe she fell asleep?" Bran offered.

"Maybe she sat there all night and froze."

"I wouldn't be surprised if she was just done listening to you, Rickon." And with that, Robb took over the kitchen and two hours later everyone was happily arguing around the dinning room table. Sansa had changed strategy and chosen to grill everyone with questions to divert from her own discomfort, which Arya didn't find as funny since a lot of those questions were aimed at her. Jon, however, seemed even more distraught than all the other meals that week. So that made up for it.

After lunch, it came time for the now almost mandatory Christmas snowball fight. Bran had promplty declined without even looking up from his phone.

Once they were all sufficiently bundled up for the snow - Ygritte had told them all at least 3 times how it was barely even cold - and making their way into the godswood, Arya decided to take a page out of Sansa's book and have one last try at making Gendry crack. She fell in next to him as Robb, Rickon and Margaery discussed logistics.

"So, Jon seemed even more stressed out today..." She tried to come off as nonchalant but Gendry immediately started laughing. "Look, I understand your loyalty or whatever to him -"

"My _loyalty or whatever_?" Gendry interrupted, still laughing? "Can I also apply that levity to our relationship?"

"No, no. I expect you to profess your undying fidelity to me every morning. If we're not together, a voice-note will do."

"M'lady."

Gendry mock bowed next to her and took the opportunity to pick Arya up and throw her over his shoulder, running past the rest as she tickled him, screaming "Don't think I'm that easily distracted!", resulting in Gendry not seeing a fallen branch and tripping over it, sending them both flying into the snow. Ary kept on tickling, trying to get him off of her while Robb covered Rickon's eyes and shouted, "Not in front of the children!"

Margaery went over to help Arya up and pull her to her side. "I'm taking Arya for my team!" She announced, already looking around. "And Ygritte!" She added, waving her over.

"What are you planning in that little head of yours?" Arya asked, not fully trusting her.

"Do you prefer Robb?" Arya glanced at him, notoriously the worst at snowball fights.

"Fair enough."

"Hey! Don't I get a say in that?" Robb protested, which resulted in Margaery pulling Jeyne to her side as well.

"No. In fact, we're also taking Jeyne."

"Fine, then I'm taking Sansa. And Jon and Gendry, for that matter. You can keep Rickon."

"Hey!"

"Sorry, kid."

After building a snow fort, Margaery sat between Arya and Jeyne, packing her snowballs.

"So, I have a plan."

Arya rolled her eyes. "Yeah, no shit."

"I think we should take the party tonight to set up Bran and Meera." Jeyne decided then it would be better if she just foccused on the snowballs.

"That's a terrible idea. Why?" Arya asked.

"Because it's fun!" Ygritte supplied with a smile before turning around and making a vicious throw clearly aimed at Jon.

"Why am I not surprised you're in on it too?"

"I think it's a good idea, he needs to get some." Rickon added from behind Arya.

"Don't encourage them!" Arya chastised him, while Margaery point at him as if to say, "See? He gets it."

"That's really only fun for you two." Arya turned to Margaery and Ygritte. "I would know."

It was Ygritte's turn to roll her eyes. "Please, like you get to complain."

Arya cocked her head to the side, thinking back to the other day when Gendry had tied her shoelace to the chair she was sitting on when she wasn't looking. But it's not like that was their fault. "Debatable."

"You don't get to be like that when you're moving in with the guy." Margaery countered. Arya only threw her hands up in defeat, quickly putting them back down when she was almost hit with a snowball.

"How?"

"We have a whatsapp group." Jeyne smiled apologetically.

"Ow!" They were interrupted by Rickon taking a hit to the head.

"And speaking of," Margaery then turned her sly grin to Ygritte, wiggling her eyebrows." has Jon popped the question yet?"

"Not yet, But if he doesn't hurry up I'm pulling that ring out his pocket myself."

"It's Jon, give him time." Jeyne then turned to Arya. "Right? He's - " She stopped when she saw Arya looking around, her eyebrows almost disappearing into her hair. "Why are you looking at us like that?"

Ygritte shook her head. "Ah, fuck. He didn't tell you, did he?"

"Gendry told me Jon was going to talk to you this week!" Margaery protested. "But please don't say anything, he's going to be really sad if it's not a surprise anymore."

Arya opened her mouth as her face went through about 15 different emotions before she scrunched up her nose and turned to Ygritte. "Wait, how do _you_ know?" The she added in a mocking tone. "Did Gendry tell you in your little whatsapp group?"

Ygritte shook her head, but she had a big smile on her face. "I found the ring in his pocket two months ago."

Their conversation was interrupted by four snowballs hitting their fort and they decided it would maybe be better to get back to the fight. Eventually it was only Ygritte left against Sansa and Jon, and despite putting up a surprisingly strong resistance, she was finally taken out by Sansa.

Already back inside the house for some tea, Arya finally had the opportunity to grab Gendry's arm and take him aside before going up the stairs to her room. 

"We're going to need to have a little chat, mister."

The fact that she sounded surprisingly like her mother wasn't very reassuring for him. "Why do I feel like it's not going to be fun for me?"

Arya gave him a threateningly sweet smile before going into her room to change for the Karstark Christmas party that night.

-

A few hours later they had all crammed into two cars with Ygritte and Gendry as the designated drivers - Gendry because he barely drank anymore and Ygritte because she was known to drive under any possible circumstances and come out alive -, this time with two new additions to the party since Rickon was no longer young enough for them to make him stay at home and Margaery has surprisingly been able to convince Bran to join.

Once inside the house, coats and scarves were switched for drinks as they were welcomed by Alys and her brothers and the party was already in full swing.

Now, when you put together a house full of people who grew up together but ended up studying and working in different places, that meant all parties started with about an hour of taking turns around the rooms to catch up with everyone. And as Arya did so, she noticed Margaery and Ygritte whisper between each other while ocasionally following Bran around and knew that couldn't be good. She also knew Bran's overpowering shyness would most likely mess up whatever plan they had made and put him in some awkward situation he never asked for. And yes, Arya was dating Gendry now, but that didn't mean Margaery and Ygritte's little set up hadn't been a little annoying, not to mention very awkward, for the both of them. 

So she had made it her plan to try and save Bran, but that was made even more complicated by her remaining siblings' secrecy.

First it had been Jeyne, her eyes pleadingly following Arya for help since Robb's friends had decided it was time for shots and it had been a while now since he had been drinking his and Jeyne's. 

As she finally managed to exit herself from that, miraculously not too drunk, Arya was intercepted by Jon, who genuinely seemed on the verge of a mental breakdown and refused to talk to anyone but Gendry. That had lead to a 20 minute search for him as Arya tried to help Jon while still seeming ignorant about the whole situation.

Then it was the herculean task of looking for Margaery, Ygritte and Bran in a big house with over 100 drunk people in it. When she finally spotted the two cornering Bran into an empty corridor but returning to the living room alone, she feared it was too late. Awkwardly standing under a branch of mistletoe hastily tapped to the ceiling - did Margaery carry it around in her bag just in case? - were Bran and Meera, who both turned to look at Arya when Bran was mid-sentence in explaining Meera what was going on.

"Of course!" he threw his hands up. "Makes sense now."

Arya felt a little attacked. "What?"

"You're in on it too!"

"With Margaery and Ygritte? No, I though it was a horrible idea." She glanced between him and Meera, stage-whispering. "I mean, I thought there could be _something_..." Maybe she was drunker than she thought.

"Oh, dear God." Bran shook his head and laughed, although he didn't seem all that amused. "I was trying to explain to them the whole night but they wouldn't listen and appearently it's a conversation topic now? I don't have a crush on Meera, Arya, I'm very gay!"

"Oh." she had tried to say anything else but was too stunned to process.

Still next to Bran, Meera cleared her throat. "This sounds like a family conversation, so... Yeah." And she was off, leaving Arya and Bran to stare at each other.

"I'm dating Jojen." He offered, trying to ease the mood. "It would be a little weird if I kissed his sister."

Arya laughed and was about to speak when she heard a voice behind her.

"See, she's there." She turned in time to see Rickon leave and Gendry coming up from behind him.

"I was looking for you." He said.

Bran headed off to the living room to leave them alone but Arya caught his hand to stop him. There was a lot she wanted to say to him, but settled for, "Hey, I'm really happy for you." His face softened and he smiled, squeazing her hand back before he left, leaving Arya to wonder why exactly all her siblings had settled on an information dump on her for the last few days.

"I was just talking to Ygritte," Gendry went on. "she says you know about the proposal. I really wanted to tell you, but I'm pretty sure Jon would kill me. I think he's more nervous about you than Ygritte."

Arya waved him off. "Yeah, he's your best friend, whatever." She pointed at the door Bran had just left through. "Bran's dating Jojen."

He looked between her and the door a few times. "Oh."

"Yeah, I know."

Then he laughed, pulling Arya closer to him. "You Starks have been busy this year."

She laughed and nudged him slightly so their were now standing directly under the mistletoe, rising to her tip-toes to give Gendry a deep, long kiss, still smiling. It was very easy to forget about her siblings when Gendry was looking this cute in one of his trademark woolen sweaters. He pulled away, smilling as well. "Arya Stark, are you drunk?"

"Maybe." She answered, letting her hands fall to play with the waistband of his jeans, glancing at the guest bathroom suggestively. "That brings back fond memories."

Gendry turned his head to see what Arya was looking at and laughed. "Like when you nearly broke my nose? The fondest."

"The key word here being _nearly_." She kissed him again, stearing him closer to the bathroom, but he pulled away, raising an eyebrow. "What? You nearly broke my nose too but you don't hear me complaining."

"Not that. In the bathroom, Arya? Really?"

She sighed, throwing her head back dramatically, but her hands still hadn't left Gendry's jeans. "I suppose i could wait until we get home."

"I think you're forgetting we're both sharing rooms."

Arya wiggled her eyebrows at him. "There's a lot of space in that house, we can make do."

Gendry winced. "I don't think that's going to work for me."

"What?"

"I can't have sex somewhere I know your family will be in the next day." He looked a little embarassed. "It's weird."

Arya only stared at him. "Are you serious?"

He gave her a half apologetic look.

She couldn't resist laughing and kissed him again, this time very clearly pushing him towards the bathroom.

"Arya..." Gendry tried one last time. It wasn't particularly heartfelt.

"If you refuse all the other alternatives, you don't get to mock the bathroom."

Gendry supposed he could have made more of an effort as Arya led him to the bathroom by the hand, but she could be very persuasive when she was wearing those shorts


	4. 26th

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm late, what's new? Anyways, it's already been pretty crazy lately and time doesn't even feel linear anymore so why not have a Christmas update, uh?

By the time 6 A.M. rolled around, Gendry had given up on sleep altogether. And since Arya's rooms had a streetlight just outside the window and Jon would rather die than sleep with the blinds closed all the way for some weird reason Gendry never bothered to understand, he had taken the last hour to take in just how _Arya_ the whole room still was. From the posters on the walls of bands she would swear she no longer listened to - she obviously still did -, down to all the picture frames and books he had already read scattered across the shelves, the room felt weirdly comfortable given that he hadn't even known Arya when she lived here.

He was still tossing around - Gendry didn't want to move downstairs while everyone was still asleep, it felt too much like being in someone else's house when no one is home - when he heard the door across from theirs open only to click shut seconds later. He listened in to see if he could make out any other sound but it was absolutely silent until he heard another door open and close downstairs and he got up to who he was sure was Arya. He had learnt this silent trait of hers the hard way.

At the bottom of the stairs, Gendry heard cabinets open and close in the kitchen and through the fuzzy reflection on the door he could see Arya in her red and green plaid button down pajamas trying to reach one of the top shelves as she held a piece of cake in her other hand, mumbling to herself altough he was only able to make out the words "Sansa" and "stress-organizing".

Gendry was in a constant battle of trying to get her back for the hundreds of times Arya had snuck up on him, what he was sure would be the cause of a heart condition later on. But along with the lightest feet he had ever seen, she had an incredibly good hearing and, as she was stuffing her face with cake, she turned around to see who had followed her before Gendry had even entered the kitchen. She smilled when she saw his pajama t-shirt that read "Santa's little helper" and looked very much like a child's pajamas but, surprisingly, came in a men's Large.

"Morning." She greeted through a mouthfull of cake.

Gendry really wished that, even if he hadn't been able to scare her, he would have taken the time to poke a little fun at her, but his mind had gone completely blank as he could only think about how much he couldn't wait to wake up to this every morning. It was embarrassing, really.

He then realized he must have been staring like an idiot because Arya only laughed as she gestured dramatically to the top shelf of the cabinet. "A little help, please?"

Gendry snapped out of his haze and smiled as he moved across the kitchen to help. As he rumaged around to find the specific mug he knew Arya had been looking for, she took the opportunity to snuggle under his outstreched arm and kiss his cheek. 

"Why are you up this early?"

"Couldn't sleep." He replied, handing her the mug. "And you?"

"Thank you. Oh, I've been waking up at 6 everyday for the past week, I need some peace before everyone is up."

Gendry laughed, not at all surprised. "Fair enough."

After pouring herself some tea, she pointed out. "You're really going to come in handy in the new apartment, that place has some high ceilings."

Gendry pretended to be shocked as he made them some toast. "Are you saying you're only moving in with me to have access to more storage room?"

She shrugged. "I was running out of space under the bed."

He held his hand over his chest and tried to pout but couldn't help laughing when he saw the plate Arya was carrying to the counter and he sat down on the stool next to hers. "Is that really what you're going to eat? Just - You're literaly just having cake for breakfast?"

"And tea." She offered, raising her mug to him. He only laughed harder. "Don't be like that, it's Christmas!"

"Are you using that excuse until New Year's?"

"No, but we still have the Christmas Soirée tonight, so technically, it is still Christmas."

"Sure."

Arya rolled her eyes but Gendry just kept staring at her plate.

"What now?"

He didn't answer. Instead, he tried to steal a piece of cake from her, which resulted in Arya promptly slapping his hand away.

"Hey, no!" You don't get to make fun of the cake and then want some!"

"You can have some of my toast! I'm actually just looking out for your health, if you think about it." Gendry tried, at the same time as he tried to go around her hands to reach her plate, but he didn't seem to be very convincing.

"Mhm, sure."

"Please?" He gave her one of those smiles he may or may not know Arya to be particularly partial to and occasionaly used to his advantage. She pretended to be annoyed but still offered him some cake from her fork, _accidentaly_ missing his mouth at the last second and leaving some frosting on his nose, laughing at the shock on his face.

"You know what? That one's on me." Gendry said, stealing Arya's napkin to clean his nose. "I should have seen it coming." 

She did redeem herself by sharing her plate.

"You know what you would love?" Arya asked as they finished off the cake. "Mum's lemon cakes. Maybe I can convince her to make some tomorrow."

"Do you have the recipe?"

"Yeah, but -"

"Then let's make some"

Arya was already shaking her head before he had finished the sentence.

"Come on, why not?" Gendry insisted. He would be lying if he said he never had some fun at the expense of how much of a perfectionist she was.

"Do I need to tell you again about the last time I tried to make them? You already know this. If I mess it up, no one will let me hear the end of it."

"You're a great cook, Arya. You cook all the time when you come over to our place." Gendry got up and was now rummaging through cabinets and pulling out everything he assumed would go into lemon cakes. "Besides, you know me. You can't offer me sweets that I can't eat in the foreseeable future."

Arya looked annoyed but still got up to go get the recipe. "What are you, twelve?"

He gave her a triumphant smile. "And a half."

By 8 A.M. - after a lot of bickering over how much butter was too much butter, an argument that wasn't even relevant to the cakes at hand - they were standing in front of the cakes, waiting for them to cook while Gendry stood behind Arya, his chin resting on her head. The heat coming from the oven and whatever Christmas song she was humming were making it very hard for him to keep his eyes open. That is until Robb barged into the kitchen screaming, hands around his mouth for a more dramatic effect, as Gawen happily followed behind, causing Gendry to jump away from Arya.

"Mum, bring the fire extinguisher, Arya's cooking!"

She looked at Gendry, only pointing at her brother as if to say "See what I have to deal with?".

Gendry gave her a pat on the head. "You're a big girl, you can take it."

Arya rolled her eyes before turning to Robb. "Don't you have a child to feed?"

"Not for long if we leave you in the kitchen unsupervised. Gendry, what were you thinking? You know about the Great Lemon Cake Disaster of 2010!"

She did move around the island counter to punch him this time, earning a surprised yelp.

"Robb, there's no need to make all this noise in the morning." Catelyn walked into the kitchen just as Arya had moved to take the cakes out of the oven. Catelyn took the tray from her hands. "Lovely, these will be perfect for tonight."

Gendry looked at Arya pleadingly as the tray passed before his eyes to be stored away. Arya, however, only smiled back and he could almost hear her say, "If you don't help with my brothers, you don't get any cakes.".

For that day, Catelyn had reverted back to her usual holiday self, which everyone at least _tried_ to understand since the Stark's Christmas Soirée was her event of the year. There were tables to be set, rooms to be redecorated and caterers to be let into the house before their friends and Ned's colleagues arrived later in the day.

So that had sent the whole house into a Christmas frenzy - again - and by 6 P.M., all the Starks were lined by the front door decked in holiday apparel and waiting to welcome their guests while Catelyn kept stealing annoyed glances at Arya. Margaery had tried to convince her and Gendry to wear their matching Christmas sweaters for the party, which Arya had found absolutely hilarious. And while she ran to her room to change, Gendry reassured them he was too smart to annoy Catelyn on this one particular night.

As the guests started arriving, Bran was rushed off to the piano - not before Arya suggestively wiggled her eyebrows at him when the Reeds arrived -, Robb made himself responsible for drinks to give Jeyne - and his liver - some peace and, soon enough, the party was in full swing.

The first hour or so went by as planned: everyone was going around making small talk and keeping thier guests happy, Bran had started taking on song requests and no one was drunk enough yet to ruin the party. However, it was almost 8 when Arya spotted Sansa running off to the kitchen, followed shortly by Margaery, who shot Arya a look for help. She switched off while Jeor Mormont went on about stocks, trying to convince herself to stay where she was. She didn't need to be involved in anymore of her sibling's drama.

But when she was asked if she was considering investing and which companies she would choose, Arya found Gendry on the other side of the room and hoped he understood her silent plea. He seemed to, since he excused himself from his conversation to gently grab her by the arm, claiming Catelyn needed her. 

Gendry followed her into the kitchen where Sansa was shot gunning a glass of champagne and Margaery looked more amused than anything. All the caterers seemed to be trying their best to look like they weren't listening.

"Please come here," Margaery waved Arya over. "and try to talk some sense into your sister since she won't listen to me."

Sansa rolled her eyes. "Because you keep saying I'm being dramatic."

"Well, you are."

"Am not!"

Arya only glanced at the empty glass her sister was still holding.

"I can't keep lying to everyone!" Sansa explained to her sister.

"You're not lying to anyone, Sansa," Margaery countered. "because no one knows and no one asked!"

"But they've all been so nice!" Sansa went on. Arya was trying to find a break in their conversation so she could cut in. "Everyone's been asking about you and how we're doing and everytime I answer, it feels like I have to lie about the engagement and I don't want to! And now I've gone and told someone else already. Perfect." She added, vaguely waving in Gendry's direction.

Only too late did he realize he wasn't supposed to know about their engagement. "Oh." He poorly faked his surprise. "Oh, my god,...Uh- Congratulations?"

Margaery rolled her eyes and turned to Sansa. "He already knows."

Arya pointed at the slidding glass doors before Sansa had time to reply. "Why are Jon and Ygritte arguing outside?"

So while _that_ was going on in the kitchen, Robb found himself with another problem in his hands. His stress levels were already high since he saw Howland Reed, Jeyne's doctor, walking into the party, and decided he couldn't let him get too close to his mother. And he was doing a job of it so far. Unfortunately, Robb ran out of red wine and when he'd come back from the cellar with more bottles, he saw his mother and Jeyne talking to Doctor Reed. He couldn't see his mother's face but Jeyne looked panicked enough to give him an idea. He thought of asking Rickon to intervene, being the closest to the scene but he didn't have enough time because they were already headed for him, his mother with an unnervingly blank expression, grabbing his arm and heading for the kitchen.

However, it seemed like someone else had already taken to the kitchen. Robb could hear Sansa and Margaery's voices coming from inside and he had a brief feeling this wasn't a conversation they should be walking into, but his mother didn't seem to care as she opened the door anyways.

"- to tell people we're getting married!"

That was one of those few moments when it felt like time stood still for everyone in the room. Catelyn's expression remained scarily blank, while Sansa's eyes looked like they were about to jump out of her head.

Catelyn opened her mouth, surprising everyone when she yelled "Ned!", before turning to the staff, "Can we have the room, please?". Everyone left the second she finished her sentence, leading to 30 seconds passionatelly avoided eye contact around the room and Arya and Gendry looking like they regretted not leaving with the staff.

Ned walked in, closely followed by Bran and Rickon, carrying Gawen, although they were all smart enough to not say anything when they sensed the tension in the room. Catelyn took a - very forced - deep breath before speaking, still abnormally calm. "Now, if anyone would like to explain. Let's start with you, Sansa. Who's getting married, dear?"

Sansa very much looked like she wanted to sink into the floor before having this conversation. She shared a look with Margaery and took her hand, swallowing hard. "We are. We're engaged."

Catelyn smiled and let out a "Lovely", leaving everyone even more on edge, if that was possible, before turning to the next victims. 

"Robb, Jeyne. Any particular reason why Doctor Reed just congratulated me on the good news?"

Jeyne blushed a very deep shade of red at the same time as Robb regretted every single hangover he had suffered in the past week had he known it would end like this. "Jeyne's pregnant. We only found out a couple of weeks ago and we hadn't told anyone yet."

Just as it had happened following Sansa's announcement, the few people in the room who didn't already know about it had to bottle down the celebration , scared to disrupt whatever stability was left to the room.

Ned took the silence from Catelyn to turn everyone's attention elsewhere. "And does anyone know why Jon and Ygritte are outside?"

Everyone turned to the slidding doors in time to see Jon kneel down in front of a fairly upset Ygritte and pull out a ring from the pocket of his jeans, which promptly shut her up. No one could hear what they said but the smile on her face paired with the confused look on Jon's was a good sign. Those expressions, however, were quick to fade when they glanced inside and saw the look on everyone's faces.

"What happened?" Jon asked as he stepped into the kitchen, still holding Ygritte's ring hand.

No one dared to answer.

Catelyn was starting to look as stiff as a board. "Does anyone else want to-"

She was interrupted by a knock on the door and Jojen announcing he had been looking for Bran, quickly realizing his mistake. Before he could retreat back into the hallway, Bran shared a look with Arya. And, at her imperceptible nod, he moved to grab Jojen's hand to keep him from leaving, letting out a "Oh, what the hell."

"Yes, actually." He announced before awkwardly pointing between himself and Jojen. "We've been dating for a while now."

No one really had time to be suprised - or react in anyway, really - before Catelyn threw her hands up and let out a sound between a sigh and an angry grunt. As everyone waited for whatever was to come next, she looked around before exiting the kitchen, stomping her feet on every step of the stairs.

"Anything else?" Ned asked, a smile on his lips, trying to lighten the mood and hide his surprise.

Rickon shook his head, trying not to laugh and Arya shot an instinctive look at Gendry before replying, "I'm good."

Rickon fake coughed to poorly disguise a "Chicken." aimed at his sister, which earned him a bewildered look from Arya.

"What?" Ned asked.

"Nothing!" Arya, Gendry and Rickon replied at the same time.

Ned smilled and added, "Well, congratulations to everyone." before going after his wife.


	5. 27th

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is it May already? Didn't notice.

After having had to wrap up the party earlier than expected the night before, everyone busied themselves sending the guests on their way while Bran and Sansa had gone off for a conversation of their own. There had also been time for official congratulations over tea and cakes now that all the cats were out of all the many different bags they'd been in.

Before calling it in for the night however, Arya pulled Rickon aside.

"Alright, spill."

He only stared at her. "Spill what? You've got nothing on me."

"That's not what I meant - Wait, that's true." Arya looked him up and down suspiciously. "How come you have nothing to share?"

Rickon shrugged. "My life is not that interesting." 

Arya thought back to all the times she'd seen him sneaking into the house in the morning before he thought everyone else would be up. "Right." Knowing Rickon, she was all of sudden wondering if she would actually want to know. "But I was talking about me, how did you know?"

Rickon gave her a coy smile. "I have my ways. And you all seem to forget when I'm around." He started walking away before adding, "You should start paying your little brother more attention."

"Hold on, this conversation isn't over! What do you know?" Remembering how Rickon didn't seem the least bit surprised throughout the whole scene that had gone down in the kitchen, Arya started fast-walking after him. "Rickon, _what do you know_?"

The next morning the whole house seemed hesitant to face the fall out of the night before, but the smell of toast and melted butter was enough to convince them. After the first bedroom door opened, the rest were quick to follow, since everyone had very obviously been up for a while. However, it seemed all the sudden courage had faded halfway down the stairs, leading to the kind of bickering they had all assumed they had outgrown.

"Robb should go first, he's the oldest!" Sansa was saying.

"No way, this only started because you couldn't make it for two more days without telling everyone you're getting married." He argued.

"A _baby_ is bigger than marriage." Ygritte offered, getting Jeyne to chime in, "Not helping."

Arya rolled her eyes before pushing past her siblings. "This is dumb."

"You're only saying that because you chickened out last night." Rickon had always loved to add fuel to the fire.

"Enough with the chicken thing! And I didn't _chicken out,_ it just didn't seem relevant at the time."

"Their baby girl is moving in with an older man," Jon cut in. "It's relevant."

"Nothing in that sentence failed to make me uncomfortable." Gendry muttered while Arya groaned.

"I still think we should discuss this!"

Arya turned around to ask Robb exactly why he thought her decisions were up for a family discussion when Catelyn's voice cut in from the bottom of the stairs. "That's amazing news!"

Arya's eyebrows almost disappeared into her hair at the same time as Gendry missed a step on the stairs." Catelyn was the one rolling her eyes now.

"Oh please, I'm still your mother." She waved them all into the kitchen, stopping only to plant a kiss on Bran's head, where Ned was setting the table for breakfast.

Once everyone had some toast, she prepared to launch into another one of her monologues. "I wanted to apologize for my behaviour last night -" But was promptly interrupted by Sansa.

"No, _I'm_ sorry! I should have told you all sooner, Margaery thought so too, and I never meant to upset you!"

"Your father and I know that." Catelyn reassured her." We weren't upset." Rickon did a very poor job of covering up his laughter with fake coughing. "Fine, _I_ was upset. But I recognize your father was right."

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Ned pretended to be surprised. "I don't think I heard you."

"Don't push it." Catelyn only glared at him before turning back to her children. "I just meant-"

"Sansa's right!" Robb added, unable to help it any longer. "We never meant for you to find out through Doctor Reed."

Catelyn forced a smile, which ended up coming off as a little manic. "Will you please just let me finish my apology?" She took a deep breath before continuing. "I just meant to say your father was right when he told me I didn't give you enough room to tell us about your news. Which is why I'm going to shut up now so you can fill us all in."

"I also said that Christmas was about-" Ned tried to add before being cut off by his wife.

"Shh, dear. This is not about you now."

The rest of the morning was spent detailing wedding plans and discussing baby names and looking up furniture stores while Gawen made sure to be passed around everyone's lap as the snow kept on piling up outside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm only 5 months late, but I still hope you enjoyed this! I still write something every once in a while so if there's anything you'd like to see, let me know!


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